Foodspotting fetches more funding

Foodspotting has something to celebrate for its upcoming one-year anniversary: The San Francisco startup just secured $3 million in Series A funding, led by Menlo Park-based BlueRun Ventures. The company — which runs a photo-based online food guide — previously secured $750,000 in seed funding in August.

BlueRun partner Jay Jamison is also joining the board of Foodspotting, the company said.

Since its launch on Jan. 15 of last year, Foodspotting has carved a path as a key mobile tool for foodies. Its website attracts more than 300,000 visitors a month. Its app has become an iPhone favorite, surpassing 550,000 downloads since its release in March (an Android beta app was released last month). It has also developed media partnerships with the Travel Channel, Zagat, Bravo, Thrillist and YumSugar.

In recent weeks, other companies have capitalized on pairing food pics with check-ins. Restaurant app Urbanspoon, recommendation site Yelp and and check-in app Foursquare have all introduced similar photo features.

CEO and founder Alexa Andrzejewski hopes the new infusion of funding will help Foodspotting become the “Pandora of food,” referring to the popular Internet music discovery site.

“Everybody’s just taking a photo,” she said. “We’re really trying to collect data on places so we can help you discover the places and items at places. That’s our big difference.”